As American as apple pie Summer Reading has been a staple pastime for ages, where folks relish the fair-weather hours in a hammock or at the beach with a good book in hand. I have been recommending summer books ever since I started this column 20 years ago in 2006. This year my no. 1 book is Playing from the “Rough: A Personal Journey through America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses” by Jimmy James.
Jimmy James grew up Black and poor in a shack with no plumbing or electricity in the piney hills of deep East Texas. His 1959 birth certificate is stamped “colored” and “illegitimate,” which doesn’t portend a man that rose as a top executive at ExxonMobile (he retired as head of America fuel operations), and a golfer who would play many of the most exclusive and revered golf courses in the USA. James managed to earn a degree in Civil Engineering at Prairie View A&M University, and retired from ExxonMobil after 33 years in 2019. He came to golf late, at 45 years old, thanks to his wife who gifted him a set of golf clubs along with lessons.
Having spent his whole life defying the odds, James took up golf and fell in love with it. But he wanted to more than just play golf. He knew that golf in America has long been an exclusionary sport that often shut out Black individuals. When he started to dream of playing at the highest ranked golf courses in the country, he wanted to see how far he could go relying on the generosity of strangers he met along the way. He found out. As he traveled across the country he met people from all walks of life, on a journey that required 73,287 air miles, 17,492 driving miles, 82 nights of lodging, 8797 golf strokes and 365 days. He also found signs of progress and hope for a more welcoming future for our country and its people.
Lest you think that James is a “duffer,” as he refers to himself, he is a truly skillful and honest golfer – no sandbagger here. Along the way in his mega-odyssey, he shot a 76 at Monterey CC. As an example of the many hurdles James was fortunate to overcome along the way, a family member of his sponsor at Shinnecock Hills on Long Island passed away just before their golf date. That’s when Shinnecock member Jimmy Dunne (see Bulletin issue June 23, 2023 “Who is Jimmy Dunne”) came to the rescue: he flew back to New York from his college reunion at Notre Dame and hosted James on June 3, the final day guest play was allowed before the U.S. Open there.
In between descriptions of the memorable golf courses and golf holes he played, with vignettes of good shots and other shots, James freely shared the trials and tribulations of his childhood and youth in Jim Crow Texas.
“What we ate was mostly grown or killed. Heat on cold winter days was generated from burning wood chopped by our own hands,” he said in his book.
As an adult realist, here is a snippet of his personal philosophy:
“What we do at the intersection of aspirations and adversity is the determinant of our life’s achievements or failures, not the circumstances. I believe that the circumstances define what we must deal with to achieve our goals. I do not believe they determine whether we can achieve them or not,” he said.
Charlie Blanchard is a guest columnist. He is a retired golf teacher and writer. He is credentialed by the PGA for playing ability. He can be reached at docblanchard71@gmail.com.
